The staff enewsletter is brought to you by the communications and press team. If you have any feedback on the enewsletter, please send your comments to webcomms@leeds.ac.uk
The University is launching a campaign to recruit more than 40 academic chairs. Colleagues from within the University are encouraged to apply.
Applications are also being sought from the wider, international academic community. To help to communicate these opportunities to colleagues outside the University, staff are asked to incorporate the following wording into University email signatures:
Building on our excellence. Investing in our future.
As part of a £23m investment in academic leadership, the University of Leeds is seeking exceptional individuals who combine internationally leading research and innovation with outstanding student education.
Alumni and staff members past and present have been recognised in the New Year's Honours list. Peter Buckley, Professor of International Business, received an OBE and Dr Kath Hodgson, Director of Learning and Teaching Support, received an MBE.
For more information about these and other honours awarded, see the For Staff website.
The 2011/12 national HE pay negotiations, affecting all non-clinical staff on the University's pay structure, have now settled. Pay on all points of the salary scale will increase by £150 a year. The increase will be implemented in February's pay, and will be backdated to 1 August 2011. The salary scales published on the HR website have been updated.
Faculty Education Service Managers have now been appointed in all nine faculties. A full list of appointments can be found on the For Staff website.
The following winners of the Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Health and Safety 2011 were announced at a prize-giving ceremony on Wednesday 18 January.
More detail about the award winners will be published in the Reporter and can be found on the For Staff website.
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Vice-Chancellor's award |
Engineering First Aiders |
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Unsung Hero award |
John Heritage, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology |
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Leader award and Beacon of Good Practice |
Alastair Watson, School of Civil Engineering |
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Practitioner award |
Ben Grigor, School of Healthcare |
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Team award |
stage@leeds and the School of Performance and Cultural Industries technical team |
The University's fourth and last series of lectures inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic Games is to begin on 26 January. Respected author and Olympic historian Matt Rogan will open the series on 26 January with a talk on how London will deliver the 2012 Games in times of austerity, with comparison to the last time we held the Olympics in 1948.
This will be followed by a lecture from multiple Olympic and World Championship medallist Kriss Akabusi on 2 February. The 400m hurdler will give his unique perspectives on elite sport and the Games.
The lectures are free and open to the public. For more details and to reserve a place at one of the lectures, see the Celebrating the Games webpage.
Energy consumption across campus on Christmas Day was significantly lower in 2011 than 2010, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 72 tonnes and saving thousands of pounds in the process. Electricity consumption fell by 15% and the energy used for heating dropped by 46%. The improvement comes eight weeks into the It All Adds Up campaign, aimed at increasing awareness of energy consumption and our carbon footprint among staff and students.
The Senate is responsible to the Council for academic governance. It also has an advisory role extending across most aspects of the University's work. It serves as a two-way channel of communication, and so underpins collegiality. It consists of some 160 members of the academic staff - of whom slightly over half are elected - and 19 student members. It normally meets six times each year, on a Wednesday afternoon.
Elections to membership of the Senate will take place this term.
Nomination forms for election of Senate members by all faculties were dispatched on Tuesday 10 January, for return by Friday 20 January. Ballot papers will be dispatched on Monday 30 January.
Nomination forms for election of members by individual faculties will be dispatched on Thursday 16 February, for return by Wednesday 29 February. Ballot papers will be dispatched on Tuesday 6 March.
If you will not be in the University at the times stipulated and wish to either nominate someone or be nominated yourself, please contact Helen Pickersgill in the Secretariat (ext 34036).
On Monday 23 January the existing Library website will disappear and will be replaced by a completely new website, created with invaluable help from 2,000 staff and students across the University.
If you have bookmarked links into the library website, or created links from the VLE, they might not work from 23 January. The most popular links will have a redirect to the new page, but otherwise you will get a 'page not found' message, with some suggestions of where the page you're looking for might be. To help with the transition, there is a 'where are they now?' help page saying where key pages have moved to.
If you have any problems finding what you need on the new website, try the improved 'Search Library website' at the top right, or the site map, or contact library enquiries (ext. 35663) who will be happy to help.
The Staff Emergency Fund is to re-named the Staff Assistance Fund and its terms have been relaxed. The Fund will now be available to staff who have worked at the University for a minimum of six months, and applications can be made to help with unexpected financial situations rather than extreme financial problems as previously. The fund is able to make an interest free loan of up to £2,000, with the repayments being made directly from your monthly salary.
More information about the revised fund will be available at the Staff Benefits Fair on 29 March 2012. In the meantime, you can visit the Staff Benefits website or contact Jill Nimmo, Pensions and Staff Benefits Manager on 34148.
Meetings have been arranged in early February for the existing black and minority ethnic and lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans staff networks, and for a new disabled staff network. Please see the For Staff website for details of the dates and times for the meetings.
Further events are being organised to establish similar networks for staff who have caring responsibilities for a family member who has a long-term illness or disability. To register your interest, please email the equality@leeds.ac.uk
This year's Climate Week will focus on developing a sustainable world and University. The Sustainable Development team is particularly interested in how your research could change the world and what benefits it would bring.
The team would like a brief summary of your research and a statement on how you think it could benefit society and the environment. These will be used to create a poster with an emphasis on the benefit/positive change with a summary of your research included. The posters will be displayed in official poster sites across the University and promoted via other means such as the It All Adds Up and Climate Week websites.
If you are interest in becoming involved please contact the Sustainable Development team, tel. 35793.
Are you interested in the wildlife that uses our campus? If you are then join the Big Campus Bird Watch in 2012 and record any birds that you see from your office window, while you walk across campus or while you have your lunch.
The bird watch will take place on Friday 27 January 2012. Recording sheets are available here. Once complete please send your forms to sustainability@leeds.ac.uk
Send your story or comments on the For Staff website to the Communications team, email internalcomms@leeds.ac.uk or call extension 38562